Tim Sherwood has repeatedly said that you need guts to play for Aston Villa. After eighty minutes against QPR, with their backs against the wall, we saw this Villa team come out fighting and they haven’t looked back since.

The victory over Spurs was easily the most pleasurable of Sherwood’s short reign.

Finally, we beat a team we weren’t expected to, who have aspirations of playing Champions League football next season, and we did it by dominating the game in terms of creating clear cut chances and with a defence that looked more assured than it has in a long time.

Our defending against QPR was amateurish at times, perhaps due to certain players fatiguing during the game, so it was pleasing to see a defensive performance of a much higher calibre.

This was in no small part down to Carlos Sanchez’s revival in recent weeks which has added steel to the Villa midfield.

Passing is clearly not his strong point – which is an understatement – and Villa might have to consider asking anyone sitting in the first six rows of the stadium to avoid wearing a replica shirt in case Sanchez confuses them for a player and attempts to pass to them.